Former Liverpool Furnishing Company showroom, Central, Liverpool

Summary

A bespoke furniture sales showroom later converted to bank and office premises, of 1899 by W Hesketh and Co, of red terracotta in Edwardian Baroque style, with later alterations.

Description

A bespoke furniture sales showroom later converted to bank and office premises, of 1899 by W Hesketh and Co, with later alterations.

MATERIALS: red terracotta and brick, slate roof, timber windows, copper roof to the clock tower.

PLAN: prominently sited on a corner with ranges along London Road and Hart Street and with its clock tower highly visible in the approach to the city centre along London Road. Of a V plan due to the acute angle of the road junction.

EXTERIOR: in Edwardian Baroque style, the principal façade faces London Road and is of three storeys plus an attic and a dormer, and three bays wide, with prominent cornices to the ground, second and attic storeys, and pilasters through the first and second storeys. The ground floor of painted white stucco has an entrance at the left, a window, and two tripartite windows each with a blocked opening for an ATM. Between the windows are channel-rusticated pilasters, and the four principal openings have tall keystones; the pilasters and keystones are linked by a moulded band below the fascia, which also has a modillion cornice.

The upper storeys are in richly ornamented terracotta (supplied by Jabez Thompson of Northwich). The pilasters are fluted with composite capitals and on a ground with prominent horizontal banding in Gibbs style. The first and second floors have full-height windows with moulded string course between them and decorated jambs; the second-floor windows have arched heads with figured keystones and decorated spandrels. These windows have moulded transoms, and (on the second floor) swan-neck pediments to the central light. Above the pilaster capitals the frieze has satyr masks. The cornice above is modillioned and dentilled. The attic floor has paired, blocked colonettes above the pilasters, with single, blocked pilasters flanking the outer windows and between the two central windows, and a dentilled eaves cornice over. At the right is a swan-neck-pedimented cartouche with the monogram of the Liverpool Furnishing Company. The dormer is further decorated with balusters, two keyed-and-festooned oculi, rinceau freeze, a Flemish gable with Jacobean strapwork, and a broken semi-circular pediment.

To the right on the angle is a two-stage octagonal clock tower. The lower stage is banded and pilastered. The upper stage has north-east and north-west skeleton clock faces with opalescent glass, with an entablature above with triglyphs, and an ogee copper dome.

The angle is narrow and splayed, in the same style as the façade, with lancet windows and a corner entrance. Over the second-floor window is a Liver-bird cartouche, and the attic has a swan-neck-pedimented cartouche with the date 1899.

The return to Hart Street is cranked, with a first bay similarly detailed to the facade, with monogram cartouches flanking the attic floor. Above this is a gabled second attic floor adjoining the tower, with a pair of balustraded windows flanked by segmental-pedimented cartouches dated 18 / 99, and fluted, blocked pilasters. The gable is further decorated with three pilasters supporting a scroll pediment.

To the right is a five-bay, three-storey façade with stucco ground-floor to the first four bays (only the first bay being channel-rusticated and having a fascia). The remainder is in orange brick in English Garden Wall bond, with red-brick gables and terracotta dressings. Bays 1 and 5 are gabled and flanked by plain brick pilasters. The windows are segmental headed with figured keystones, and the second floor has a lintel band. Bay 5’s pilasters have large consoles at ground-floor, flanking a blocked coal-hole opening.

The rear and east return are plain with gables, and white glazed tiles to the lower three floors of the east return. The east wall of the front range is abutted by neighbouring buildings. Where it projects above them it is gabled and white-painted lettering just remains legible, reading LIVERPOOL/ FURNISHING CO.

INTERIOR: original window architraves remain, along with cornicing, skirting and later plain doors and partitions. The main stair has square vase balusters and plain newels with ball finials; the back stair is similar with stick balusters. The lift has a wood panelled interior. The shaped-spreader heads of the structural columns are also visible on the second floor. No fireplaces or decorative floors remain and the banking hall is entirely modern. The basement retains some stone flag flooring, tiled coal hole and stone steps to a former access from Hart Street, as well as modern safes. The clock mechanism remains in situ, apparently converted to electric drive, although some weights survive.

History

104 and 106 London Road were built as the Liverpool Furnishing Company’s sales premises beginning in 1899, superseding their earlier premises at numbers 100-102. The owner of the business, Jacob Lipson, was a Polish-born Jew who became treasurer and president of the Liverpool New Hebrew Congregation which worshipped at Hope Place synagogue. The opening in May 1900 was celebrated with a Jewish blessing and the building praised in the local newspaper as a landmark (in particular for its clock) and an example for other developers to follow. Edmund Beckett (Lord Grimthorpe) did not patent his clock designs and so although it was reported to use his latest developments, he probably had no direct involvement in the design of the clock by the makers, Joyce of Whitchurch. Local architects W Hesketh and Co designed the building.

Jacob Lipson died in 1908. His oldest son Harold was a furniture manufacturer and probably supplied the dealership, and his second son Arthur had worked for the dealership, but it closed soon afterwards (probably before 1911). By 1915 the United Counties bank occupied the premises, before being acquired by Barclays in 1916. The change of use to banking involved the replacement of the original glazed mahogany shopfronts and ‘refrax’ glass stall risers, by a stucco façade, and subdivision of the originally-open show floors. It is also thought that the staircase was altered and moved with the removal of the carved walnut newels and installation of a wood-panelled passenger lift, while the original furniture lift was removed. Some woodblock and mosaic floors may also have been removed at this time or later.

Barclays remained until the late C20 but by 1975 Natwest had moved in. Goad fire insurance maps of 1944 and 1960, and a 1960s photograph showing external signage, show that the upper floors were used by the woollen trade and as offices for the London and Manchester Assurance Company during this period. Natwest closed the branch in 2013 and the building was empty from 2014, suffering from some vandalism at the time of inspection (2022).

Reasons for Listing

The former Liverpool Furnishing Company premises, a bespoke furniture sales showroom of 1899, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a good example of late-C19 commercial architecture with richly-decorated terracotta facades and timber windows embellished in flamboyant Edwardian Baroque style, and retaining external painted lettering and some surviving interior features;
* it is a prominently sited building with a landmark clock tower.

External Links

Historic England Listing

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.